


Aepic: Year One

by Thallium665



Series: Then There Was Just Light And They Were Gone [2]
Category: Justice League - All Media Types, Superman - All Media Types
Genre: An excuse to write my own superheroes, Borrowed setting, F/F, F/M, How Do I Tag, How many tags should I have, No Beta, OCs a plenty - Freeform, Please excuse my summary I'm hot garbage at it, Slow Burn, new characters - Freeform, slow start
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:27:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23903830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thallium665/pseuds/Thallium665
Summary: In a world without the Justice League, Metropolis needs a hero. It needs a hero to stand for the same values that Superman brought into the City of Tomorrow. Enter Aepic, the hero with a heavily exaggerated trillion powers, as he attempts to change the world by saving one life at a time. But power comes with a price and Aepic attempts to take down a superpower-inducing drug empire with dysfunctional copies of superpowers he's collected.
Relationships: OC/OC, mentioned Clark Kent/Lois Lane
Series: Then There Was Just Light And They Were Gone [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1720246





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, welcome to the second installation of my own Superhero OC story, "Then There Was Light And They Were Gone". The first hero I wanted to introduce was the proxy for Superman: Aepic, the hero with a heavily exaggerated trillion powers. 
> 
> I got the general idea from a quote I heard from my younger brother when we were talking about superheroes. When I asked him what superhero he wanted to be, he naturally stated that he should be Superman because Superman came with trillion powers. Then, I began to work around the idea of a superhero that copies powers but retains them with drawbacks, providing a challenge. 
> 
> I do not own any characters affiliated with DC comics.

A car flies through the air, down Second St., crashing down upon an abandoned taxi, causing a large explosion upon impact. A towering, pale figure lumbers forward, roaring out in fury. The figure looks vaguely humanoid, with a larger torso than its legs, causing it to stand quadrupedal, it’s chest looming over its larger forearms. With it’s oversized hand, it reaches over to another car, but is slammed back by another figure.

A large figure in a red unitard elbow drops itself onto the pale behemoth’s reaching claw, slamming the limb into the concrete. The beast screeches in agony, retracting its hand back from the induced crater, before slashing with it’s other hand.

“-” the red unitard-wearing figure seemingly chuckles brashly, raising his fist to challenge the oncoming claw, but the brunt of the damage is deflected off a new figure that rushes in between the red-clad warrior.

This new figure raises her hands in a T-like fashion, stretching her body as wide as possible. The palor beast’s claws scratch over the spread figure’s body, clawing at her purple tunic. Miraculously, the woman and her purple tunic show no form of slashing wounds after the claw. 

As the beast’s claw grinds off the purple-clad woman, the red-figure catches the hand with his muscular arms and twists his torso. The claw, caught between the brawny brute’s red chest and his arms, twists, snapping it past its joint, earning a monstrous howl in agony from the creature in question.

As the creature howls, a blue blue flashes through the underbelly of the beast, swiveling itself around its back legs. It circles around a couple of times, before running away from the backside of the beast. The beast buckles as its back legs give way as the cobalt speedster speeds away, revealing its legs tied up with a chain. 

Driven into a practical corner, the behemoth of a beast acts like a beast would: It attacks blindly, slashing its claws against a fleeing woman, child clutched in her arms. As the free limb’s sharp talons come down upon the poor woman, she is thrown forward by a force slamming into her. The claws come down upon the force - a silver-clad woman - crashing its weight upon her. However, as the beast’s paw creates another indention into the street, this time on the curbside, the silver-clad woman seemingly floats through to the top of the hand, undamaged. 

The beast growls in confusion at the woman, snarling in disappointment at the missed opportunity for senseless violence. It raises its claw, shaking the woman in silver off unexpectedly, but the woman simply phases through its hand, safely onto the street. 

Before the beast could react, zooming high in the sky, another figure in the seemingly endless barrage of colorful heroes emerges, proud in forest green cape, carrying two other figures, orange and white respectively, one with each hand. The one in orange points his hand at the beast’s own, a blast of flaming heat surges forth. The laser’s heat burns through the monster's wrist, severing it from the limb. 

Dropping from his emerald flying friend’s hand, the white-hooded figure lands on the street. Stretching her hands out, a cold gust blows harshly against her target. It can be visibly seen that, as the woman stretches her hand out to the beast, it’s neck begins to crack as the cold forms frost over its pale skin. 

With the concentrated efforts of the seven heroes, the looming, pale monster is subdued. Roaring its last and with the loss of its external limbs, it falls to the ground and the silver-clad woman rushes forth and smashes its face one last time, knocking it cold. 

The camera pans out and switches perspectives. It flashes forward to a street-level view. The pale beast has been subdued with a muzzle over its jagged face, its remaining clawed hand and its legs placed into black machine restraints. The hulking mass is placed onto a platform and is surrounded by armed guards with futuristic looking guns as it was loaded onto a large supervillain detention cargo truck.

A woman - a reporter stands before the camera, looking back onto the scene, pointing at the cargo truck. As the reporter points out, she and the cameraman make a dash to approach the seven heroes, as they overview the situation. 

With the seven heroes, side by side, they look like a rainbow of models, each representing their color in a thematic costume befitting their station. But one thing they all held in common, was the black cape they wore over their colorful ensemble. The reporter continues to talk to the seven heroes and it looks like they’re celebrating their win with pride. They all smile at the camera and say some words of encouragement on the situation making the reporter herself turn and smile at the camera, signaling the end of the news report. The reporter stops mid-word and the video stops, popping up similar videos from the same youtube channel.

“-nd that may very well be what we owe to one another; A statement on what our duty is to mankind.” a voice finishes and Will jolts up, banging his knee against the desk. He refocuses on his surroundings and quickly shuts off his cellphone that he hid behind his propped up notebook. As the screen of his phone turned black, he could see his own reflection. Will was not much to write home about, truthfully. He had messy brown hair and dusty brown looking eyes, equipped with an even more average build. Today, he was wearing a red hoodie over some denim jeans. He was an average guy, through and through. In a way, he took solace in that. He never really impressed or disappointed people, he was just there.

“Thank you, Ms. Larson. That was an… unapologetic report on humanity and philosophy on an assignment that was supposed to be about your favorite local restaurant,” Prof. Lynch says dryly. “But, I suppose, for an extra-credit assignment, there are no bounds, I guess.”

Luna Larson, the presenter, looks awkwardly at Prof. Lynch, as he lazily critiques her report. She visibly cringes as he goes over what she should have done and poked some holes in her writing in front of the class, but she stands proudly, listening deeply at the advice the fat professor doles out. 

“So what grade would you say I received, Professor?” Luna perks, as she senses that Prof. Lynch is drawing the end of his evaluation.

“Well, as you are the only one who opted for this assignment, I guess you get an A for participation.” Prof. Lynch drawls sleepily, reaching over his desk for a red pen. Uncapping it, he makes a single slash over the paper, signaling the end of the conversation.

Luna looks on, raising her head to see over the paper, almost as if to confirm the existence of a red ink slash over her paper. Satisfied, she looks away and walks toward her seat. Will watches Luna as she approaches him. He had known Luna for a long time, but he never got along with her.

Luna was about the same height as he was, maybe an inch taller if Will was going to be honest, with blonde hair braided into a kept ponytail. Today, she was wearing a beige sweater vest over a white button-up, with a black tie, all over some black slacks. As she sat down in the seat next to Will, their eyes caught sight and Luna pushed her black eyeglasses up to the bridge of her nose and glared back at Will. The look she gave was clear. She had 100% noticed that he didn’t pay attention to her presentation. 

Will, embarrassed over being caught practically red-handed, looked away. It wasn’t like everyone else was paying attention. Why was she always riding his back on stuff like this. It wasn’t like they were close. Regardless, Will digressed and watched the clock tick away. 

He never felt guilty about not paying attention in this class. He had come to Metropolis Community College to start his career as a Civil Engineering student. Intro to Journalism was just to fulfill his English Prerequisite. It also didn’t help that it was his last class of the day for Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  
Once again, Will is awoken from his deep thoughts by the loud shuffle of feet. He glances toward the door and sees Luna and the rest of his classmates heading out the door. He follows suit, slinging his backpack over his shoulder while carrying his notebook in hand. 

As he strolls down the hall of the College toward the front entrance, he sees his friend Kevin, talking with two guys. Kevin was much taller than Will, with long, wild blonde hair, flowing a little past his shoulders and built like a linebacker. The only downside was that Kevin was - ahem- a little larger than life and lacked the confidence to make use of his great stature. So, naturally, seeing the scenario, Will knew that his friend needed his help.

As he approached, he could see one of the guys, a lanky man named Sammy, get on one side of Kevin, and the other, stout guy called Lorenz, get on the other. 

Lorenz started first, snipping snarkily “Well, Kevin. Long time no see. How y’a doing?” 

“Yeah, yeah. Long time no see, pal.” 

“I’ve, uh, I’ve been good.” Kevin stutters, eyeing the two goons on each of his side, as they begin to take his arms into his own.

“Yeah, you look good. Hell, you look like you eat good too!” Sammy chortles, flicking at Kevin’s stomach. “Me and Lorenz, here, were wondering if you could spot us some cash, ya’ know?”

“I-I don’t know about that, guys,” Kevin says sheepishly, stiff as a board, as Lorenz and Sammy continue to paw at his side, arms stretched over his back.

Lorenz begins to guide Kevin one way, patting his back, “Well, I heard you got all this money you aren’t using. What’s money good for if you can’t treat your friends here and there.”

“Well, if that’s true, where’s my share Kevin?” Will steps forward, crossing his arms. He knew he wasn’t intimidating, but he also knew that Sammy and Lorenz would back down when they were met with any form of resistance. That was just the kind of thugs they were. Spineless.

Sammy and Lorenz freeze and remove their arms from Kevin’s body. They glare at Will, but take a step back. Man, he just had the worst day for people glaring at him, Will mused. The two goons turn their back and slink off and Will can hear the slightest murmur of snark as they leave the hall. 

Will walks over to where Kevin dropped his bag and picks it up. He holds it out to Kevin, as he grips his own in the other hand. 

“Kev, you really gotta stop letting those guys push you around. I mean, you’re pretty much twice as big as they are. If anything you should be pushing them around.”

“Thanks, Will.” Kevin stretches out his arm, and takes back his backpack. He slings both the straps over his Superman logo shirt. “I can’t help it though. I just freeze up when they come around, ya’ know?”

“Eh, we’ll work on it. I’m telling you though, you should get into Hockey. If you showed just a bit of aggression, guys like those wouldn’t even dare look in your direction funny,” Will chuckles. Both men begin walking down the hall, out the front door.

They continue their stroll out the front steps under the banner reading ‘Metropolis Community College’ talking about their weekend plans.

“Yeah. I got that new game Kingdom of Crete. It’s an RPG game where you create your character as a Greek Demigod, like Hercules or Perseus. Then you travel around Greece, fighting mythological monsters and villainous gods. You should come over today. It has several saving slots for separate characters, so we could have you start your own hero,” Kevin rambles about his newest video game on the Xbox One. Kevin was a little more wealthy than Will, yet he never really meant to show off. From what Will had learned since High School was that Kevin truly meant well. So when Kevin offered his luxuries to Will, he never held it against him. 

“Thanks for the offer, Kev. But, I’m gonna have to decline. I was gonna ask my boss for more hours this weekend.” Kevin looked a downcresent, but knew not to push on the subject, especially when money was involved. 

Will liked money. He liked having a lot of it. It wasn’t in the sense that he was obsessed with it, but he knew that money was the fix for many of his issues. So, it wasn’t an uncommon thing for Will to ask for more hours at his job. 

Catching his friend’s saddened face, he interjected, “Maybe we can do it next weekend. I should be free that entire weekend to hang out. Now, come on, we’re gonna be late for the bus.”

Kevin seemed to like that idea and they agreed on it, as they continued their walk. Eventually, as Kevin rambled on all the features that were in the game and the mods that he installed to maximize the fun of the game, they caught sight of their bus stop. At the stop, two individuals were sitting on the bench: Luna Larson and a man that Will recognized. 

Luna sat on the bench, on her phone and as the man, Gerard, continued to talk, holding out his phone and pointing to the pictures off of his Instagram. Gerard was a self-proclaimed Instagram Influencer that was ‘on the rise’. As much as he hated to admit it, Gerard and Will were well-versed in each other’s company.

As Luna continued to ignore Gerard by reading an article on her phone, Gerard noticed Will and Kevin approaching the bus stop bench and called out, “Hey, Willy-O. Just the man I was looking for. I got a job for you, if you’re looking for some cash?”

“Hey, Gerard. I’m doing alright.” Will greeted. Luna looked up from her phone and registered Will and Kevin’s presences. “Oh, hey, Luna. Nice presentation.”

Luna huffs in indignation. “Nice presentation? I saw you, Foster, you were busy watching some video on your phone. You weren’t even hiding it, all that well! Do you know how rude that is? I poured my own free time to research my topic and then wor-”

“Uh-huh. Sorry, I asked then.” Will glazed over, cutting Luna off. Fortunately for him, the Line 52 bus arrived and their one-sided conversation was cut short. Will climbed aboard, flashing his bus pass to the driver and turned heel to find a pair of empty seats for Kevin and him.

As Kevin sat down on the seat by the window, Will slung his backpack under his seat and sat down. He watched as Luna walked down the bus hall, finally seating in some empty spot at the front. As their line of sights caught each other once more, Luna glared some more and Will, at this point of the day, decided to wink back mockingly. When in doubt, wink, he always said.

As the bus began to move and Will looked out the window, past Kevin, he could see the streets of Metropolis pass by. Ever since the Light, Metropolis was in a state of constant reconstruction. The battle against the Alien Invasion left not just Metropolis in partial ruins, but other cities, other countries as well. Especially with the disappearance of all the old heroes, it didn't really help. Regardless, it had nearly been a year since that event and the World, more or less, began to move on. 

As the bus drove by, the streets of Metropolis passed over Ground Zero of the invasion: a pile of rubble and ruins that stood where buildings once did. It was cordoned off for construction, but everyone knew that it would take years for the city to rebuild. One building stood out to Will. It was a staple in his bus ride back and forth from the college to his apartment. Over the horizon, well past the street his passage was driving down, was the Daily Planet building. It’s glorious stature rising high above most buildings in Metropolis, it once housed one of the most famous news organizations in the nation: The Daily Planet News. But those days were gone. While the tower continued to impose its shadow upon the citizens of Metropolis, the building showed clear signs of damage. Windows were busted and rust and dirt plagued the walls of the spire. Chunks of the brick walls were missing and some of these even showed the interior floors. If you stare long enough, you could even see the dismal state of the internal floor space, wracked with even more dust and a general sense of brokenness. It was a depressing sight. But the reason why Will liked seeing the building was more positive. On top of the building, the broken globe that towered over the building laid shattered and incomplete, but on the curved surface area remaining was a large painted blue and red “S” shield, with the words “Always Hope”.


	2. A New Horizon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will works an event. A very interesting one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own the rights to any DC comics characters.
> 
> Please review. I would really appreciate anything, even if you don't like my story.

The distance muffled sounds of classical music intertwined with the buzzing static from the fluorescent lights flickering above. Will slumped over the scratch, white fold-in table in the corner of the empty room. Across the table, past his unfinished PB & J sandwich, were other people like him. He turned on his phone to check the time. 11:34 PM, the blue light flashes across the screen, as he clicks the power button on the side. 

“How long do you think this is gonna last?” Will asks, turning to face his fellow workers, across the table. Some look like they didn’t hear him and the ones who did seem to ignore him. Will looks blankly, at the ones who he thinks heard him, yet couldn’t coax any of them for an answer. 

Catching their drift, Will continues to slump over the table, bored out of his mind. He knew he shouldn’t complain, He was getting paid by the hour for his service, regardless of whether he was actively working. But still, he felt bored out of his mind. He began to kick himself for taking the job. He should never have taken another job from Gerard. But he never learned.

It was the Friday Afternoon on the ride back home from school. Will was just enjoying the ride, earbuds plugged in, minding his own business when he felt someone tap on his shoulder. Disrupted from his cooling down process, he turned to see who so rudely interrupted him only to see Gerard with a shit-eating grin plastered on his face. 

He had a business opportunity for him, he said. It makes good money, he said. And Will just listened with interest like an idiot. And so, here he was, a proud member of the Manual Labor   
Staff for the latest Lexcorp Gala event for something or the other, sworn to serve at practically $15 an hour, from way before the event begins to way after the event ends. 

In fairness, it was a good amount of money, if only because of the sheer amount of hours he was working. He had arrived at the Gala event location at the Metropolis Recreation Center at the wee hours of 8:00 AM on Sunday morning, signing off several papers relieving Lexcorp of any injuries he may receive on the job or any misdoings he committed. Standard affair type of stuff. Despite how much he was bitching about the job, he was no stranger to these kinds of gigs. Gerard, as much as Will disliked him, knew how to find nice payouts and Will was more than willing to get paid. Didn’t mean he couldn’t gripe about it. 

Deciding he couldn’t stand being in the employee break room for another minute, Will stood up, gathering his leftover PB & J and his phone into his backpack. Slinging the bag over his shoulders (He didn’t trust the other temporary workers), he exited the room into the hall. As he opened the door, the crescendo of classical music overpowered the equilibrium between the fluorescent flickering that surrounded the empty room. 

“I, uh, gotta use the restroom,” he mumbled over his shoulder to the rest of the workers. He knew that they didn’t really care, but he still said it. 

As he walked down the hall, he could hear the door swing, slamming slightly into the wall signifying its close. As he walked down the hall, the classical music continued to get louder and louder with every step that he took, until Will found himself nearly alone in the hallway.

Toward Will’s direction, two drunken party goers haggardly stumble closer. At least that was what Will had thought initially. As he got closer he could better see that one was not a party goer, but belonged to the staff. Of the more superpowered variety. Clutching a gorgeous blonde woman in a crimson sweetheart neckline dress to his arms, was Jet-Stream, a hero Will recognized from the video he had watched the other day in class. 

Jet-Stream was wearing his classic forest-green bomber jacket, the cuffs and the collar lined with black fur, over dark combat slacks. He was a very thin, handsome man with long blonde hair parted to the side, pushed aside from his bomber goggles, and tanned, smooth skin. On the right front breast of his bomber jacket, a lighter green ensignia with the initials “S7” acted as verifiable proof that he was part of one of the up and coming superheroes groups, The Super Seven. 

Will had seen him earlier that day, when one of the Luthor people amassed the event workers to direct them to their working areas. Jet-Stream hung around two unfamiliar superheroes toward the back. From what Will had heard, he and the other two heroes were being paid as superhero protection in the event of a supervillain incursion. It was only recently that this kind of thing became more standard and another staple in the post-Light world.

Will directed himself to the outskirts of the hall to give them space. As Jet-Stream and the woman passed him, he continued on his path to get farther away from that employee’s wait room. But, as he took a couple steps, he heard a voice call out from him. 

He turned around and saw Jet-Stream and his girl facing him. Jet Stream’s arm, curled around the girl’s waist, flicked toward Will’s direction, as if to get his attention. “Hey, uh, pal. You know where we could get some peace and quiet. Kaitlyn and I need to… find a place to talk something out, ya’ know?”

“Um…” Oh God, are they gonna… , “I think there’s a room a couple doors down, I think to the left.”

“Thanks, man.” Jet-Stream winked at Will and gave him a finger-gun, as he and Kaitlyn turned around to journey further down the hall, presumably to find a place to talk.

Moments later, Will found the entrance doors to the main chamber and decided to take a peek inside the event. The music began to die down and everyone seemed to begin to take their seats. A beautiful woman in black, floor length dress steps forward, her presence demanding the attention of the room. The lights dim and a showlight lands on the beautiful woman, the light shines off her diamond necklace. As the lady takes stage, the room erupts into a chorus of clapping.

“Yes, thank you all for coming. It means the world to me to see so many people here tonight. To see so many people who love our dear city.”

As the beautiful lady continues, Will can’t help but think that he’s seen her before. But, the thing is, if Will had met a woman like that, he would definitely never forget her name. The elegant black dress she wears loosely hugs her frame, leaving something for the mind to imagine. The dress’s neckline plunges to a flatting amount of cleav-.

A man bumps past Will through the door frame, carrying a large TV Camera over his shoulder. Some people follow past the camera-man with accompanying equipment. Will peeks past the bumbling train of incoming TV people into the hall. The last one in the hall, a ginger-haired man ushers the people erratically.

“Come on, we’ve already missed some of Lena Luthor’s opening statements!” the ginger whispers loudly, “Oh, Lois is going to kill me…”

Ah, Will realize, that’s where I remember her. That was THE Lena Luthor, the new CEO of Lexcorp. Supposedly during the Light, Lex Luthor, the former CEO and Lena Luthor’s older brother, went missing when one of the Parademons snatched him up. Some say that Lex Luthor was a villain and that he got erased during the Light, just like the likes of infamous villains like the alien overlord Darkseid or Toyman. But, it wouldn’t surprise Will if Lex Luthor was just kidnapped by some aliens. It wasn’t uncommon the following days for people to count how their loved ones went missing. 

Some of the TV equipment guys wait out the hall, stopping to calibrate their equipment. The ginger strolls up to the doorframe, opposite of Will. Standing nearby, the ginger gives a sideways look to Will and nods his head. 

“Sup.”

“Sup.”

As to not impede their entrance, Will sidesteps into the main chamber, alongside the wall. Far be it from him to interrupt someone’s hustle. Out of the way, he refocused on the beautiful lady’s speech.

“...It’s been nearly a year since the Blinding Light that took away our heroes, including our very own Superman, but Metropolis has always been a city of dreams. A city of progress. And while our city was hit the worst during the Invasion, Metropolis maintains its title today. As a result, your wise city council has begun to work very closely with Lexcorp to restore our fair city to her former glory. But simple restoration would never be in line with our city’s nature. And that is why I am proud to tell you all that Lexcorp is not only dedicated to restoring our city, but improving it past its former glory. Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you… Metropolis: A New Horizon!”

Lena Luthor steps back and a hologram of Metropolis Ground Zero lights up on the floor of the main chamber. Craning his head, Will can see many of the ruined buildings that he can recognize from his bus rides. At the center of the holograph, the ruined Daily Planet building dominates over the map. The holographic map begins to slowly rotate for special effect, vibrating the little holographic components until it breaks apart and zooms in on certain landmark buildings as seperate maps: The Daily Planet Building, Glenmorgan Square, Little Bohemia, and Centennial Park, etc. 

After showing the damaged superstructures, the map begins to revitalize once more; a crawling effect spreads throughout the separate maps, restructuring the damage as it goes. Once the reconstructing wave finished, the buildings of Ground Zero stood in holographic glory. Rotating between the restored landmarks, the maps zoomed out, shrinking their stature, and connected to one another, digitally creating filler buildings in between for proper scaling. 

However, as the city map of ground zero stood before everyone, a new wave of vibration took place, rewriting the outline of the buildings. Like before, the vibration continues to reshape the map of Ground Zero, leaving in its wake a familiar but an unrecognizable scene. The map contained all of the previous features and landmarks, but they were different. In place, the buildings looked… alien. Centennial Park looked lush with a flat but curved surface of neatly trimmed grace. It’s wide open spaces were surrounded by a beautiful, symmetrical forest on every side of the park. The statue of Superman was rebuilt, alongside new statues of the Justice League, making a sort of walkway of heroes leading up to the Man of Steel himself. Glenmorgan Square popped out with more futuristic features, like a central station for what appeared to be a bullet train that spread throughout Ground Zero. Even the Daily Planet looked better.The Daily Planet’s globe hovered over the building top, held between an overarched “C”. But the globe itself seemed to project digital screens that popped up at random intervals around various sizes.

Lena Luthor stepped through the Holographic Map, toward the audience, focusing the attention back on her. She turns to look back on the hologram and holds out a clicker in her hand. The improved Ground Zero hologram moves to the side and an enhanced map of the improved Daily Planet building is in the center front rotating for the audience to see. 

“Metropolis: New Horizon means more than just a revitalization of our city, but an advancement. Lexcorp projects a five year long plan, drastically cutting previously projected time estimations by 20 years. The first installment of Metropolis: New Horizon will be the restoration of the Daily Planet building, a beaco-”

A large explosion burst through the ceiling above the chamber. It’s loud reverberations thunder throughout the room, matched only by the subsequent screams of confusion and terror.

The ceiling above cracks and gravel falls onto the chambers. Some of the audience members are trapped under the rubble. Screams of confusion roar throughout the room, as armed men in black tactical suits wielding alien weaponry rappel down. A group within the armed men float down to the ground under a yellow energy platform. With futuristic weaponry, they began to open fire around the room, causing mass havoc and chaos. Will immediately jumped behind the chamber doors, hiding himself behind the walls. He peeked out to watch, eyeing the two superheroes in the room, reading for them to take action. As they began to spring forward in action. Some of the armed men quickly grabbed hostages, holding them at gunpoint.

“Move and they all die.” An armed commander barked, clutching the red-haired man Will had met earlier.

The heroes back downed, circled by the threat of a circling firing squad of armed men. The event patrons were corralled into the far corner of the room, prodded under the but of alien guns.

A group of five costumed individuals stood aside from the group of armed men. It was obvious to see that these five were in charge or, at least, special, due to their peculiar looks or costumed/masked clothing. To the back, stood a large bear anthropomorphic humanoid and a lanky yellow-costumed man; Both clocking in easily at seven feet tall. In front of the group, a man dressed in a fine suit, stood with his hands behind his back. He turned his head to look behind and gave a simple nod. The large bear anthromorph roared ferociously, charging at one of the two superheroes cornered by the armed men. It slashed its clawed paws down on the prone hero, splashing red across the floor. The lanky man stretched out his hands, elongating it around the other hero. The hero struggled against the grasp, but the stretched arms slithered around her body up to her neck. The villain’s stretched forearms twitched to the left, snapping the hero’s neck. Retracting his arms, the lanky murder threw the hero’s corpse to the corral of huddled patrons. Screams of horror erupt through the chamber. 

The man in the suit began walking toward Lena Luthor’s position, his other two companions, a red and blue costumed duo, moving ahead of him. They strood faster than their shot caller and grabbed hold of the Conglomerate CEO. 

“Well, It’s been a while now, Ms. Luthor,” The man in the suit sneers.

Lena Luthor struggles against the hold of the red and blue duo. “Whatever it is you want from me, I can get you. Just let everyone go”. 

“Ah, my dear. If only it was that simple, but I’m simply here for what was promised to me”. The man in the suit smirked. His hand stretched out to grip Lena Luthor’s lower jaw, turning it as if to inspect an apple. “So, Ms. Luthor, I came to ensure that we ca-”.

The man in the suit stopped abruptly, as if shocked by something. As he turned his head to the chamber doors, morbid curiosity shifted to a probing disgust. The man’s cold, charcoal eyes pierced through the walls, right to Will’s. He knew Will was here. 

“Oh, ho. Where there is nothing, there is something.”

Will turned and ran as fast as he could out of there.


End file.
